S.Rathesan B.Sc(Hons), M.
Sc, MBCS, MCITP
An IP address is a numeric identifier assigned to
each machine on an IP network.
It designates the specific location of a device on
the network.
IP addressing was designed to allow hosts on
one network to communicate with a host on a
different network regardless of the type of LANs
the hosts are participating in.
BIT: A bit is one digit, either a 1 or a 0.
BYTE: A byte is 7 or 8 bits, depending on whether parity is used.
For the rest of this chapter, always assume a byte is 8 bits.
OCTET: An octet, made up of 8 bits, is just an ordinary 8-bit binary
number. In this chapter, the terms byte and octet are completely
interchangeable.
Network address: This is the designation used in routing to send
packets to a remote networkfor example, 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0,
and 192.168.10.0.
Broadcast address: The address used by applications and hosts to
send information to all nodes on a network is called the broadcast
address.
Subdividing an IP address into a network and
node address is determined by the class
designation of ones network. This figure
summarizes the three classes of networks
Address
Network 127.0.0.1
Node address of all 0s
Function
Reserved for loopback tests.
Interpreted to mean network address or
any host on specified network.
Node address of all 1s
Interpreted to mean all nodes on the
specified network
Entire IP address set to all 0s Used by Cisco routers to designate the
default route. Could also mean any
network.
Entire IP address set to all 1s (same as Broadcast to all nodes on the
current network; 255.255.255.255)
sometimes called an all 1s broadcast or
limited broadcast
Address Class
Reserved Address Space
Class A
10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255
Class B
172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255
Class C
192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255
Layer 2 broadcasts
Broadcasts (layer 3)
Unicast
Multicast
Benefits of subnetting include:
Reduced network traffic
Optimized network performance
Simplified management
Facilitated spanning of large geographical
distances.
Take bits from the host portion of the IP
address and reserve the to divine the subnet
To create a subnet, follow these steps:
address.
1. Determine the number of required network
IDs:
One for each LAN subnet
One for each wide area network
connection
2. Determine the number of required host IDs
per subnet:
One for each TCP/IP host
One for each router interface
3. Based on the above requirements, create
the following:
One subnet mask for your entire
network
A unique subnet ID for each physical
segment
A range of host IDs for each subnet
Used to define which part of the host address
will be used as the subnet address.
A 32-bit value that allows the recipient of IP
packets to distinguish the network ID portion
of the IP address from the host ID portion.
Used to allocate an amount of IP address space to a
given entity (company, home, customer, etc).
Example: 192.168.10.32/28
The slash notation (/) means how many bits are
turned on (1s) and tells you what your subnet mask
is.
In a Class C address, only 8 bits are available for defining
the hosts. Remember that subnet bits start at the left and
go to the right, without skipping bits. This means that
the only Class C subnet masks can be the following:
Binary Decimal CIDR
--------------------------------------------------------10000000 = 128
/25
11000000 = 192
/26
11100000 = 224
/27
11110000 = 240
/28
11111000 = 248
/29
11111100 = 252
/30
Subnet
Host
Meaning
00
000000 = 0
The network (do this first)
00
000001 = 1
The first valid host
00
111110 = 62
The last valid host
00
111111 = 63
The broadcast address (do this
second)
Subnet
Host
Meaning
01
000000 = 64
The network
01
000001 = 65
The first valid host
01
111110 = 126
The last valid host
01
111111 = 127
The broadcast address
Host
Meaning
11
000000 = 192
The subnet address
11
000001 = 193
The first valid host
11
111110 = 254
The last valid host
11
111111 = 255
The broadcast address
Subnet
Answer Five Simple Questions:
2x = number of subnets.
X is the number of masked bits, or the 1s.
For example, in 11000000, the number of ones
gives us 22 subnets. In this example there are 4
subnets.
2y-2 = number of hosts per subnet.
Y is the number of unmasked bits, or the 0s.
For example, in 11000000, the number of zeros
gives us 26-2 hosts. In this example, there are 62
hosts per subnet.
256-subnet mask = block size, or base
number.
For example 256-192=64. 64 is the first
subnet. The next subnet would be the base
number plus itself or 64+64=128, (the
second subnet).
The broadcast address is all host bits
turned on, which is the number immediately
preceding the next subnet.
Valid hosts are the number between the
subnets, omitting all 0s and all 1s.
